Hello chaps,
I keep a Maglite XL50 in the car. It has been rather cold this last four weeks and last night I reached for the torch, to find it was ICE COLD and totally out of juice. The batteries were those supplied with the torch so brand new. And now, only after 10 minutes of use, they are dead.
So cold kills batteries.
What type of battery can I rely on for use as a spare, in the car?
With best,
There seems to be much confusion in this thread.
For some odd reason, unknown to logic and common sense, Maglite seem to promote the use of alkaleaks, the worst battery type to use in pretty much anything, let alone a torch.
Yes the cold massively affects alkalines. But that isn't their only vice, tendency to leak and ruin whatever they are in and general poor performance is what they manage best.
You have 2 main options:
-Lithium primaries.
Most likely the shiny silver Engerizer branded ones. These are NOT rechargeable, they are throw away like alkaline batteries. The different however is:
-They have a fantastic shelf life, 10-20 years normally
-They don't leak
-They don't mind the cold
-They don't suffer the same voltage sag as alkalines
This all means longer runtimes and better sustained output from a torch (they work equally as well in AAA/AA powered digital camera's too).
They cost more to buy (although if you buy online they normally aren't too badly priced).
But because they perform so much better and last longer, chances are you'll spend less using these than you would on alkaleaks that you'll need to change very often.
-Rechargeable NiMh.
If you plan to use the torch quite a bit, then running any non rechargeable will get pricey. Your best alternative is some LSD (low self discharge) NiMh batteries.
It's generally accepted that Sanyo Eneloops are the best around. These will hold 70% of their charge for 3 years. And performance is brilliant from them. Runtimes with rechargeable are likely slightly shorter, but the advantage is you don't have to pay for new ones, each time the torch goes flat.
NOTE:
There are non-LSD NiMh batteries, these typically have a higher capacity, but could go flat via self discharge in a couple of weeks or so. Which is probably not as handy for a flashlight, unless you use it every day and will run them flat well before this.
NOTE 2:
There are no rechargeable Li-ion batteries available for this flashlight.
